Celebrty 1999

by Joann Jovinelly

Jennifer Love Hewitt has a certain appreciation for her career, learning to experience what she calls a full range of emotions. From screamer roles like Julie James in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and its sequel, to the most sensible Sarah Reeves on television's troubled teen drama "Party Of Five", Love has just began to let her hair down.

"You have to scream and gasp and breathe and fall to the ground and cry. Acting is about all of those things," she says. And Love should know. After all, she has forced herself to climb up on stage since I was a child; an utterly precocious nine year-old dragging her divorced mother in tow to Los Angeles, California after she was convinced that she could become a successful actress.

It's a story she enjoys relating.

"I've enjoyed entertaining since I was a small child---before I even realized that I could make acting my life," she says. Some of the more amusing childhood stories that Love recounts are when she stole up onto unfamiliar stages and began singing a healthy rendition of the Kris Kristofferson classic, "Help Me Make It Through The Night". Before her parents could even react, the unsuspecting "audience" was giving her a standing ovation. Love had already began to set precedents in her career. Future stardom would not be far away for the dark and determined little girl from Waco, Texas.

Rising above a busy career of television commercials, pilot episodes and flopped series', Love continued her long battle finally landing a role on FOX's hit program, "Party Of Five" as it entered its second season. It was a breakthrough then and it still helps to perpetuate her career today, some four years later. Her role of character Sarah is typical of her personality. Strong, forthright, responsible and righteous, Sarah schools herself, actively pursues her love for Bailey---a reformed alcoholic---studies life and gives warm sisterly advice to co-star Claudia Salinger played by Lacey Chabert.

What seems to be among Love's most admired traits is her unblemished appearance. From the pages of her take on the "Got Milk?" ad camp[campaign to her persona of innocence, Love embodies every aspect of the all-American image. A large part of them attraction has to do with her hair.

Love never drifts to far away from what works for her won unique style. Vacillating only between shades of chestnut, dark browns and warm blacks, Love has managed to do a great deal with simplicity. Perhaps her riskiest hair-raising move was when stylist added lengths to her existing mane by weaving in exentions, but she naturally shies away from statements such as these. Love's latest look, now lightened, fuller-bodied and slightly shorter, allows strands to rest on her shoulders.

Recently, FOX has asked Love to continue playing her role as Sarah in yet another teen drama, this one a bit lighter and less emotional. It is, however, exactly emotion that will take her there. Based upon her character of Sarah, a curious Love will travel to New York City in search of her biological father in the appropriately titled spin-off drama, "Time Of Your Life". Tentatively scheduled to premiere this fall, it is but on of the recent jobs in which she has committed and also has a contractual film tie-in. Sound's like Love's in business!

What you may not heard is that she has also made the crossover from teen star to movie executive. One of her newest endeavors was to pitch an idea to New Line Cinema that was eagerly accepted and brought to fruition. The film that birthed out of Love's dream, literally, is appropriately titled "Cupid's Love" and stars her as the protagonist main romantic interest.

"It's actually based on a dream that I had whish was so nice, I just wanted to share it with people. I felt there was no better way of doing that then through the production of a film," Love continues. "I'm really excited because this is the first project where I'll have the opportunity to act as an executive producer." Other current projects for Love include several television movies such as the biopic about famed actress Audrey Hepburn of which she will play title role.

And what about the latest Love Story? Love will star in the remake of the heartbreaking account based on the novel of the same name by Erich Segal. Beginning production this season, Love will play the role that Ali McGraw originally made famous---a young woman who is diagnosed with a fatal disease as soon as she finds true love---and certainly a medium in which she may explore every range of active emotion as an actress.

Aside from stage and screen, Love has also found the time to explore the medium of dance pop music. Having released three solo albums (1 Japan/2 American) to date and a newer CD single, Love is on a role. She even spent several weeks on Japan's charts in the No. 1 spot!

"I'm really busy acting so I'm putting music on hold," she says. "I love singing too much to rush and record an album just for the sake of getting it done. I want the next album to be something that I'm really proud of---music that I can grow into---like the rest of my career."